Trafic des êtres humains : May en Sainte Thérèse
Commission globale sur l’esclavage moderne
et le trafic des êtres humains
Communiqué
We, the members of the independent Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, came together for our first meeting in London on 5th October 2023.
Our diverse group of 16 Commissioners, drawn from the worlds of politics, civil society, research and business, and led by former UK Prime Minister Theresa May, share a passionate commitment to restoring lost political momentum to global efforts to end modern slavery and human trafficking – the greatest human rights issue of our time.
At our meeting, we shared our expertise and insights about what needs to happen to catalyse more effective global action to counter modern slavery and human trafficking. We established the foundations for the Commission’s work and wish to communicate the following key outcomes of our meeting.
Mission
We agreed that our mission is to reverse the recent alarming increases in modern slavery and human trafficking, and get the world back on track towards achieving its agreed goal in the Sustainable Development Goals of eradicating them by 2030.
Objectives
We agreed that the Commission’s main objectives are :
1. Providing and ensuring high level political leadership at the global level
2. Ensuring the evidence and knowledge base and mobilising research
3. Promoting and facilitating international collaborations and partnerships.
Commitments
We also pledged to observe a number of important commitments in our work :
To deliver on our aspiration to be a truly global Commission, open to both membership and leadership drawn from all regions of the world and reflecting an appropriate balance between the Global North and South
To maintain a robust independence from any Government, international organisation, business, civil society organisation, funder or other organisation that might seek to influence us
To ensure that people with lived experience are central to our work
To collaborate closely with other actors in the field to ensure that we complement and amplify their efforts
To engage proactively with all relevant stakeholders including civil society
To take an intersectional approach to addressing modern slavery and human trafficking, recognising that the drivers of vulnerability to exploitation are interconnected and include gender-related vulnerabilities, climate change impacts and protracted conflicts
To promote the issue of modern slavery and human trafficking in relevant international fora.
Decisions
We made a number of decisions to enable the Commission to start its work immediately :
We appointed the Rt Hon. Theresa May MP as Chair of the Commission and Adama Dieng and Sophie Otiende as Deputy Chairs.
We adopted Terms of Reference, which will be published on the Commission’s website www.modernslaverycommission.org
We agreed to establish a Panel of Advisers with Lived Experience to embed expertise by experience in every aspect of the Commission’s work
We agreed to establish a Civil Society Reference Group to enable the Commission to consult and engage proactively with civil society
We agreed to publish a Report in Spring 2025 containing detailed recommendations which we will then work to implement.
Work Priorities
The Commission’s initial work priorities will focus on the three areas suggested by the Scoping Study :
Tackling forced labour in global supply chains
More effective national implementation by states of their internationalcommitments
More effective engagement of civil society in crisis contexts
Next Steps
We plan to take a number of immediate steps to get our work underway :
We will appoint a dedicated Global Commission secretariat to support the
Commission’s work and to provide a single point of contact with the Commission.
We will convene a roundtable for interested civil society organisations to discuss the Commission’s work and as a first step towards establishing a Civil Society Reference Group
We will convene a meeting of people with lived experience, including representatives of existing engagement mechanisms, to discuss the
Commission’s work and as a first step towards establishing the
Commission’s Panel of Advisers with Lived Experience
We will establish Working Groups to lead the Commission’s workstreams.
Conclusion
We are grateful for the support of our Co-Convening Governments, the UK and Bahrain, to our hosts, M & G, for their hospitality and to all those who have given so generously of their time during the extensive stakeholder engagement that preceded the establishment of the Commission.
We look forward to working to produce a report which will make bold and innovative but implementable recommendations about how to get the world back on track to eradicating modern slavery and human trafficking in all their forms.
Commissioners
Note: There are 16 Commissioners
The Rt Hon Theresa May MP – Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (Chair
of The Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking)
Adama Dieng – Former UN Under-Secretary General and Special Adviser on the
Prevention of Genocide (Deputy Chair)
Sophie Otiende – Feminist, survivor advocate, Chief Executive Officer of the Global
Fund to End Modern Slavery and Founder of Azadi (Deputy Chair)
Ausamah Alabsi – Former Chief Executive Officer, Labour Market Regulatory
Authority in the Kingdom of Bahrain and Former Chairman, National Committee for
Combating Trafficking in Persons
Vindi Banga – Chair of UKGI (UK Government Investments)
Edward Braham – Chair of M&G, FTSE100 firm
Jose Manuel Barroso – Former President of the European Commission and Former
Prime Minister of Portugal
Dr Epsy Campbell-Barr – Former Vice-President of Costa Rica
Ilwad Elman – Chief Operating Officer, Elman Peace Centre
Grace Forrest – Human rights activist and Founding Director of Walk Free
Alan Jope – Former CEO of Unilever
Professor Anita Ramasastry – Professor of Law and Director of the Sustainable
International Development Graduate Program at the University of Washington
Nasreen Sheikh – Survivor of Modern Slavery, social entrepreneur and author
John Studzinski CBE- Managing Director of PIMCO and philanthropist
Professor Andrew Thompson CBE – Professor of Global History
Havovi Wadia – Director of Programs at the Freedom Fund